Is Dallas Woodhouse Crazy?

Prop-toting vote suppressor Dallas Woodhouse

Well the year of 2016 is coming to a close, and while time usually seems to move quicker as one gets older, the presidential election season made this year seem longer than it was.

As far is this blog is concerned, it's been a while since I've given out a Rockwell Award so given that the film awards season is underway,
it seems fitting to close out the year by giving one out.

A certain orange-haired egomaniac might seem the obvious choice.

But I'm going with Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party whose actions, words and beliefs best emobdy the spirit of the Rockwell Award.

As some of you may recall, the Rockwell Award is named for George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party.

Rockwell was a man whom the BBC called "the American Hitler" who inspired many in the modern American white supremacist movement, including former KKK grand wizard David Duke.

If any one person best embodies the Republican Party's willingness to actively seek to suppress the ability of people of color, students and the elderly to vote, it's Dallas Woodhouse.

As the Raleigh News Observer reported, (mute your computer if you click that link, there's a really annoying poker ad that plays when you open the link) back in August Woodhouse made headlines when he emailed GOP members of North Carolina's county election boards and encouraged them to "make party line changes to early voting" by using their authority to limit hours when African-Americans, college students and the elderly tend to vote.

Woodhouse shows off his Christmas present 

Now Woodhouse isn't soley responsible for all the reprehensible voter suppression tactics being used by Republicans in NC.

The GOP state legislature passed a law back in 2013 that took aim at early voting hours and Sunday voting hours when many blacks in NC tend to vote.
 
But his overt efforts to specifically use measures to target black folks in order to deny them access to the poles is straight out of the Reconstruction era, and reflective of unbalanced borderline zeal with which he does it.

If you've ever heard him in interviews he tries to justify his illegal voter suppression tactics by using the common GOP tactic of fanning the flames of hysteria over voter fraud that's statistically proven to almost never take place.


As the News Observer reported even his own brother took to Twitter (mute your computer!) to call Dallas Woodhouse's voter suppression tactics "blatantly racist and completely disgusting."

Now I've never met Dallas Woodhouse personally, so I don't really know what motivates him to make it his life's mission to make it harder for black people in North Carolina to vote.

If I had to guess I'd say he's probably just one of these "alt-right" conservatives whose irrational white supremacist ideology permeates everything they do; to the exclusion of reason, sanity, decency and morality.

Maybe he's just crazy.

Recently on NPR I heard an interesting interview with Sander L. Gilman and James M. Thomas, co-authors of "Are Racists Crazy?", a book published in 2016 that traces the roots of the scientific theory that racism is in fact, a form of insanity - a mental illness.

Their book is based, in part, on the results of a 2012 study conducted by scientists at Oxford University who conducted a clinical trial that showed that the use of the drug Propranoldol (a beta-blocker commonly prescribed for blood pressure) had the effect of curbing racial bias in those who took it.

If that's the case then maybe Woodhouse (and many others in the U.S.) need to start taking it.

Anyway that's it for now, I've got to get ready and change to head out for New Year's Eve; I'm heading over to my friend Geoff the Economist's house to ring in the new year with good friends, good food and of course, a beverage or two.

Thanks again for checking out the blog, have a safe and happy new years and I hope to see you back here in 2017.

-CG

A Genuine Hollywood Ending

Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher

It was hard absorbing the news that legendary actress Debbie Reynolds died just one day after the passing of her daughter Carrie Fisher.

Life and family, love and loss, death and grief, each are so powerful in their own ways.

Both collectively, and in and of themselves, they define us as inescable parts of the rich tapestry of human experience.

But in each of those, both profound joy and profound sadness can be found; as anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one can attest.

While I never knew or met her, actress / writer Carrie Fischer's recent death has been on my mind a lot over the past few days.

As a fan of science fiction and film from an early age, she loomed so large against the backdrop of my coming of age from her prominent role as Princess Leia in the first three Star Wars films.

For millions of people around the world, those were more than just movies - they were defining cultural icons that impacted society and changed not just how audiences saw science fiction as a film genre, but the film industry itself.

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars

From special effects and sound, to merchandising, licensing, marketing, distribution and of course, how a "blockbuster" is defined in terms of box office.

I was just nine years old when the original Star Wars was released back in 1977 and as I've blogged about before it wasn't just THE entertainment event of the year; it was a true cultural phenomenon.

There was nothing like it before, it was as if the film had landed from outer space - which in a sense, it did.

It was in theaters around the country for months and I saw it in various theaters eleven times.

In the suburbs of Bethesda, Maryland where I grew up, that's just what people did. Remember when you used to attend the birthday parties of classmates in elementary school?

In 1977 and 1978, I swear I attended at least six different birthday parties where cake was served, the candles were blown out, presents were given, then the adults piled all the kids into cars and hauled our screaming assess off to see Star Wars.

Looking back on that time from the vantage point of adulthood, it wasn't just a film that both kids and adults could go see together and be entertained by what was happening onscreen - it was a welcome and riveting cinematic escape for both young and old.

I'd bet my last dollar that tired moms, dads, grandparents, uncles and aunts everywhere back then were relieved to have someplace to take kids for two hours where nothing had to be wiped up, cleaned, washed or cooked - just get them to the theater, buy tickets to Star Wars, grab 'em some popcorn or Goobers and presto!

A couple hours of bliss; bless you George Lucas.

Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden in Singing In The Rain

In later years, as I began to develop a deeper interest in film as an art form and began writing screenplays and watching and studying a wider variety of classic film, I came to appreciate Carrie Fisher's mother, Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds.

If there's a single performer who manifested the idea of a Hollywood "Star" more then Debbie Reynolds I'm not sure who it was, or is.

The first movie I saw with her was the classic 1952 musical Singin' In The Rain.

Recognized by many film critics and fans alike as the best musical of all time, this MGM classic directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan arguably ranks as one of the best films in history period.

For those who've seen it, it's important to remember that amazingly, Reynolds was only 17 years-old when she began pre-production on this film and she couldn't dance before she was cast in the role of Kathy Selden.

She turned 18 during the filming and was 19 when it was released; and the film and her performance eventually enshrined her as one of the biggest and most popular stars of Hollywood's "Golden Age".

Singin' In The Rain is a classic American "rags to riches" story set against the backdrop of the transition of the film industry from silent movies in the 1920's to sound productions that seamlessly merges the apex of cinematic musical comedy with the dancing talents and creative genius of Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor.

Donald O'Connor, Reynolds & Gene Kelly in Singin' In The Rain

If you've never seen it, just buy a cheap used copy of the DVD and watch it - it's hysterical, touching, entertaining, transformative and heartwarming filmmaking set to some of best, and most recognizable musical scores in film history.

Reynolds' raw physical talent, singing ability and infectiously optimistic personae leaps off the screen as she holds her own against two of the most gifted veteran performers in entertainment history.

 And it's really funny.

Now my point is not simply to gush about one of my favorite American films.

I wanted to emphasize the fact that one of the amazing aspects of Debbie Reynolds being the mother of Carrie Fisher is that they both made their on-screen debut in different genres of film that would not only become iconic examples of American filmmaking; but their respective roles would cement them both as performers who would forever occupy an almost mythical status in the collective subconscious of American entertainment.

So while it's sad, maybe there's something magical about Carrie Fisher and her mom Debbie Reynolds dying within a day of each other.

When I used to live in New York, I used to work in an Irish bar on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, called McAleer's; the owners were two Irish-American gentlemen of the old school named John and Frank McAleer - two guys who came over from Ireland to America together and made their fortune.

One day John McAleer died, it was sometime in the morning as I recall, and about two or three hours later his brother Frank, who I knew well, worked with and respected, dropped dead.

Within hours of each other - true story.

I don't know everything, but I firmly believe that people can die of a broken heart; perhaps some people brought close by the circumstances of life just can't bear the idea of someone they love passing into an existence beyond this world without accompanying them.

By all accounts Debbie Reynolds could be defined as a "controlling mother"; but what mother isn't?

Maybe she just didn't want to live without her daughter; perhaps she just wanted to be there to protect and guide her - even at the cost of her own life.

Regardless, both of them will exist forever in the roles they made classic on screen, and any way you look at it, there's something beautiful about the two of them leaving this life together - it was a genuine Hollywood ending.

The Free State of Jones

It was just about this time last year that I attended the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Brooklyn with my sister, niece and said niece's friend - so it's sad to hear about Carrie Fischer's passing. 

A lingering cold, assorted holiday shopping and a tricky December work schedule have kept me from seeing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but I plan on catching it in IMAX 3-D in the next few days after hearing pretty solid reviews from some fellow sci-fi aficionados.

With the holidays season upon us and the cold winter nights now amongst the longest of the year, I find it an ideal time to catch up on some of the films that time or circumstance prevented me from seeing in the theater earlier this year.

One of the films I truly wish I'd gone to see on the big screen was the summer release The Free State of Jones starring Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey.

After watching the film on DVD the other night, it's my opinion that McConaughey delivers one of the most searing and nuanced performances of his career, in a fascinating story set against the backdrop of one of the most fascinating and yet little-known stories of the American Civil War.

As a history buff, I first heard of the Free State of Jones back in 1990 during the PBS broadcast of director Ken Burn's epic TV series, The Civil War. during episode number 4 titled "Simply Murder", which chronicles the year 1863 - one of the bloodiest of the Civil War. 

FYI, three of the deadliest battles of the Civil War took place in 1863, including the Battle of Gettysburg (June 3 - July 24, 1863) - 51,000 casualties, 7,863 killed; the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia (September 1 -20, 1863) - 34,624 casualties, 3,969 killed and the Battle of Chancellorsville April 30 - May 6, 1863 - 24,000 casualties, 3,271 killed.

So "Simply Murder" is a truly apt description of 1863 in America.

Ken Burns used the term "The Kingdom of Jones" to describe the vast section of southeastern Mississippi around Jones County where a handsome, imposing 6'4" fundamentalist Baptist farmer named Newton Knight (played by McConaughey in the film) led a large group of ex-Confederate soldiers, escaped slaves and poor farmers collectively known as the Knight Company to revolt against members of the Confederate Army. And with good reason.    

Newton Knight

The Free State of Jones, ably directed and written by Gary Ross, offers an excellent portrayal of how bands of roving Confederates systematically raided local farms and houses to seize clothing, farm animals, food, crops and other personal items from private civilians to provide for the needs of the chronically under-supplied Confederate troops.

In some cases, the lawless seizure of food and animals left poor southerners in states of near-starvation.

The film also shows how the Confederate Army alienated grass roots support by conscripting children and men into armies, taking them from their homes by force to serve as soldiers - and the gruesome manner in which Confederates hung captured deserters in the field without trial.  


The film opens on the morning of the second day of the Second Battle of Corinth, a brutal slugfest pitting 23,000 Union soldiers against 22,000 Confederates which took place on October 4, 1862 in Alcorn County, Mississippi that would result in 6,753 casualties - including 828 soldiers killed over the course of two days.

In the film's beautifully-shot but heart-breaking opening sequence, ranks of marching Confederate soldiers advancing on Union positions are decimated by cannon fire from entrenched Union artillery positions before medic / litter bearer Newton Knight (played by McConaughey) first appears carrying a critically wounded Confederate soldier from the battlefield while under fire.

After glimpses of some of the bloody realities of a Confederate Civil War-era field hospital are shown in graphic detail, Knight is approached by his terrified young nephew, who was forcefully conscripted into the Confederate Army from his home only days before, but fled his unit to find his uncle.

The boy is ill-prepared for war, and while Knight tries to protect him during an attack, the boy is fatally struck by a Union sharpshooter and Knight, unable to persuade one of the over-worked physicians to perform surgery, takes his nephew out under a tree to comfort him as he dies.

Jones County, Mississippi

Pushed to the brink, Knight decides to take the boy's body back home to Jones County so his family can bury him, and he deserts the Confederate Army.

It's there back in Jones County that the film really begins as Knight sees first-hand the hardships faced by his wife Serena, extended family and neighbors resulting from the confiscation of supplies as his opposition to the Confederacy intensifies.

In real life, according to various historical accounts of the period, large numbers of deserters from the Confederate Army had begun flowing into the Jones County area well before the Second Battle of Corinth.

When the Union's forty-plus day siege of Vicksburg, Tennessee ended with a Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863, it effectively cut the Confederacy in half and gave the Union control of the vital Mississippi River for the rest of the war.


Many historians cite Vicksburg as one of the critical turning points in the Civil War, not only did it cut the Confederacy off from using the Mississippi to transport badly-needed supplies, it had devastating effects on the morale of Confederate soldiers - after Vicksburg fell, many began fleeing south from Tennessee and west from Alabama into Mississippi to avoid being recaptured into the war.

As the map above shows, Jones County sits near the western border of Alabama, so not only were disgruntled Confederate deserters from Vicksburg in the area, a number of Confederate soldiers from Jones County had begun to desert from the Battle of Corinth after hearing news of the terrible conditions at home as a result of so many men and boys off fighting the war, crops being neglected and farms and homes being raided for supplies by the Confederacy itself.

So by the time large numbers of Confederate deserters were making their way into Mississippi in the summer of 1863, Knight's group of guerrilla fighters was already pretty well established in Jones County, supplemented with men from the neighboring counties of Smith, Perry, Covington and Jasper Counties who'd organized to protect their farms, homes and kin from Confederate raiding parties.

July 16, 1864 Harper's Weekly image of CSA deserters
turning themselves into Union soldiers 

The Free State of Jones is one of the first major films I've seen that explores the motivations that spurred the southern insurgency against the Confederacy.

It also offers insight into southerners who opposed not just the war itself but slavery - and how some men felt about fighting and dying in a war for slavery even though very few Confederate soldiers actually owned any slaves.

The film has a couple scenes where Knight talks about the "Twenty-Slave Law" with other Confederate deserters.

The Twenty Slave Law was a controversial measure passed in 1862 by the Confederate Congress that created an automatic exemption from military service for any man who owned twenty or more slaves.

On different occasions in the film, McConaughey's character cites the Twenty Slaves Law to discuss why the Civil War was an unjust war being fought for the economic benefit of a handful of wealthy southern landowners rather than for some sense of honor or gallantry.

For example, as the characters in the film discuss, the Twenty Slaves Law also contained provisions that progressively multiplied with the more slaves someone owned, so that the first 20 slaves someone owned would get one man an exemption, 40 slaves would get the next male in line an exemption - and so on.

Knight teaches Rachel (Mbatha-Raw) to shoot a
rifle in The Free State of Jones

That's just one way the film consistently touches on contemporary issues like the futility of war and the massive wealth disparity that are at the root of so many economic problems across the globe today.

While the film portrays Newton Knight as an ardent abolitionist, the story never mentions that his grandfather was one of the largest slave owners in Jones County; but neither Newton Knight or his father owned any slaves.

One of the more interesting subplots of the film is Knight's relationship with a slave from a nearby plantation named Rachel, played in the film by the talented actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Rachel first appears in the early part of the film when she comes to Newton Knight and his wife Serena's cabin to save their son from a life-threatening fever using herbal remedies.

Later when Knight is bitten by a dog in the course of helping a local family fend off Confederate raiders, a sympathetic merchant named Aunt Sally (played by Jill Jane Clements) helps Knight get to a remote swamp so he can hide out with a group of escaped slaves and Confederate deserters.

It's there that Knight encounters Rachel again, and grows closer to her, as she brings supplies to the escaped slaves and deserters, and he also meets an escaped slave named Moses, brilliantly played by actor Mahershala Ali, (who stands out in the Netflix series House of Cards) a character who becomes one of Knight's closest allies and friends.

Keri Russell plays Knight's wife Serena & Mahershala Ali
plays his friend Moses

Knight's relationship with both Rachel and Moses become central to the film, and while Moses was a fictional character, Rachel was real and just like the film, she and Knight fell in love and went on to spend the rest of their lives together in defiance of Mississippi's miscegenation laws which outlawed marital relationships between whites and blacks.

The strength of this film really is the performances by an excellent cast who effectively breathe life into complex characters.

Keri Russell, who is so amazing as an undercover Soviet spy in the FX series The Americans, is excellent in the supporting role of Knight's wife Serena and Bill Tangradi is brilliant as the sadistic Confederate Lieutenant Barbour; those are just two of members of the cast that make this a film well worth watching.

Director and screenwriter Gary Ross deserves credit for tackling a fascinating but complex and violent chapter of American history, one that revolves around some difficult subject matter; including the post-Civil War Reconstruction era when efforts to integrate African-Americans into society including schools and the voting booth, were met with resistance and violence.

So I respectfully disagree with many of the mixed reviews The Free State of Jones received earlier this summer when it was released; Godfrey Cheshire's review is a prime example.

Director / writer Gary Ross

In his decidedly harsh review of the film, posted on RogerEbert.com back on June 24, 2016, Cheshire took what I believe are some unfair shots at the script and direction - both the work of Gary Ross.

The movie tells a complex story that takes place over years during a tumultuous time in American history, it's not something that's easily wrapped up into a tight, easily digestible 90-minute package.

It's a multi-course meal that the audience has to sit down and savor.


The story is fascinating, the cinematography, sets, costumes and production value are all first-rate; so why the mixed reviews and disappointing box office?

I'm not a film or marketing executive who decides these kinds of things, but I think like so many films these days, The Free State of Jones was released at the wrong time of year.

The production company that produced the film, STX Entertainment, originally set a release date of March 11, 2016, then they moved it to May 13, 2016 - and finally moved it to June 24th at the height of the summer at the very same time that big tentpole releases like Independence Day: Resurgence and Finding Dory were in theaters amidst other films like Central Intelligence and The Conjuring 2.

So my sense it that a lot of parents who might otherwise have taken a look at this film were carting kids around to these other films in addition to summer camps and vacations etc. - a lot of people just missed it in the theaters and I think it would have done better being released in late fall or winter when mid-budget art house or independent films with heavier, or more adult, subject matter vying for awards are often released.

Jones & company prepare to repel a Confederate attack

But no matter what date a film is released on the calendar, with OTT streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, any release is riskier these days because people have so many other entertainment options at their hands - I have a feeling this will become one of those films that finds a "second life" and a new audience who watch it on cable or via streaming.

But The Free State of Jones deserved to be seen by more people in the theater.


Particularly given the divisive racial climate of the summer of 2016.

A period exasperated by unjustified police shootings of unarmed people of color, an electorate divided by political ideology and Trump's damaging rhetoric - this film offered perspective on all those things, and valuable insight into ourselves as Americans.

No just as black, white, male or female, Republican or Democrat (in one memorable scene, recently-feed blacks march into the town hall to demand ballots to vote for the Republican Party), this film took a deeper look at unexplored parts of the American experience that merit closer examination and dialog; and it challenged a number of assumptions too.

As writer William C. Anderson wrote in an article on Truth-out.org, contrary to embellished southern beliefs about southern devotion to "the cause", there were a number of areas across the south similar to the Free State of Jones.

Places where southerners either supported the Union, or opposed the institution of slavery, or the Confederacy's succession from the Union.

Places like Scott County, Tennessee.

A pro-Union stronghold that, as Anderson notes, formed the 'Free and Independent State of Scott' after Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861.


In the critical Civil War battleground state of Georgia, there were pro-Union strongholds in the Appalachian Mountains in the northern part of the state.

And like Jones County, Mississippi, after the Confederate defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in 1863, Confederate deserters tired of war sought refuge in the swamps and back country of Georgia - and there were pro-Union militias and guerrilla fighters across the south who attacked Confederate positions, plantations and freed slaves. 

Now I can't speak for everyone, but I was never taught that part of Civil War history when I was in middle or high school; nor was Newton Knight ever on any test question for my history classes.

Perhaps whites who fought against slavery and the Confederacy doesn't fit the narrative that some conservative school boards in America see as a "proper" curriculum that fits their political leanings.

Remember the Houston, Texas school district using a McGraw-Hill history textbook that called African slaves kidnapped and shipped to America "workers" and downplayed the role of slavery as the cause of the Civil War?

If American kids have to learn about the pilgrims, George Washington, Paul Revere, or Henry Ford in school - they should be learning about Manzanar, Cesar Chavez, Dredd Scott, Newton Knight and the Free State of Jones too.

Those parts of U.S. history might not be as easy to digest, but like vegetables they should at least be on the plate. 

Weirdos In Wisconsin: Defending the KKK, Odd Sheriffs & Walker's Revenge

How're those charter schools working Gov Walker?

These are truly strange times we are living in.

Depending upon how you voted back on November 8th, yesterday's Electoral College vote confirming Donald Trump's victory was either a cause for celebration, or a depressing reminder of the current state of American democracy.

Bill Clinton was clearly not pleased.

In Wisconsin, where Tea Party puppet Republican Governor Scott Walker's very first state budget back in 2011 included $800 million in cuts to public schools while expanding charter school vouchers for Milwaukee students, an African-American teacher was recently relieved of her teaching duties at the Business and Economics Academy of Milwaukee after she sent a letter to parents of her seventh grade students explaining a class assignment for them to write an essay defending the Ku Klux Klan as a persuasive writing assignment.

Now I don't know that charter school teacher personally or anything, nor am I a teacher, but you can teach persuasive writing to seventh grade students without having them think up ways to defend a white supremacist terrorist organization.

Seriously, between her highly inappropriate classroom assignment and the unhinged right-wing Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke's recent call for people to take up "pitchforks and torches" against the federal government, the White House, the Department of Justice and what he calls "big media", black folk in Wisconsin got some strange-ass ideas.

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke

If you thought Sheriff Clarke's bizarre right-wing spiel at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland earlier this summer was out there, take a couple minutes and watch some of his demented rant against the amorphous evil of big media.

Which, in the sheriff's eye, includes the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC - I'm guessing the First Amendment just isn't really his thing.

If you watch that video clip, remember this guy is the Sheriff of the fifth-largest city in the American mid-west.

Either he seals himself in a hermetic chamber and binge watches Fox News while listening to Alex Jones at night, or he's a got a serious man-crush on Arizona's xenophobic soon-to-be ex-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

You heard about Arpaio's Fake News Extravaganza press conference last Thursday when he tried rekindling the long-debunked Birther Theory?

Yup, now that Sheriff Joe's incessant hate-mongering has lost him his Sheriff's badge, he's resorted to proving that President Obama's birth certificate is fake - equal parts pathetic and strange.

But getting back to Wisconsin, in case you were wondering, Gov. Scott Walker's loopy brand of dehumanizing conservatism has only gotten weirder since he was one of the first presidential hopefuls to be bounced from the 2015 Republican Clown Car.

Scott Walker's hit-list includes the gray wolf. Really.

As Sophia Tesfaye reported in an article on Salon.com today, Walker sent a letter to Donald Trump requesting that the federal government loosen regulations to allow his state the autonomy to drug test food stamp recipients, increase premiums on Medicaid and legalize the hunting of the almost-extinct gray wolf.

Did Walker send his Christmas fantasy list for Santa to Trump by mistake?

Has Scott Walker reached the point where hunting the endangered gray wolf into extinction is a "freedom" to be cherished?

Does the gray (or timber) wolf represent some kind of existential threat to Walker's brand of way-off-the-ranch conservatism?

As Defenders of Wildlife's gray wolf fact-sheet notes, these amazing creatures play an important role in keeping the ecosystem in balance that scientists are just starting to fully understand.

Mankind almost killed them all off in the 1930's and they're just now starting to repopulate their species and return to habitats they once thrived in, so maybe Walker wanting to let people kill them all is just some kind of heartless and petty f*** you to animal rights activists?

Or perhaps Walker thinks he can score some cheap points with Trump by requesting the right to hunt one of North America's most endangered species in order to please the fake news-Tweeting Trump-spawn Donald Jr. and Eric - who like to flaunt their manhood by posing next to photos of endangered species they kill.

Regardless of his motivation, Gov. Walker still comes off as a spineless nincompoop from the same state that gave us tax cut fetishist Speaker Paul Ryan and Trump's newly appointed White House Chief of Staff, former RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

Like I said, strange times - and equally strange Republican men.

The Road to Political Chaos in Carolina

Defeated & spiteful NC Republican Gov. Pat McCrory
goes for the last laugh   [Photo - Getty Images]

There's been a lot of justifiable outrage in recent days after both chambers of the Republican-majority North Carolina state legislature called a stunning special session where they rapidly introduced a series of bills
specifically designed to place limits on recently-elected Democrat Roy Cooper's powers as governor.

Not surprisingly, outgoing Republican Governor Pat McCrory quickly signed the bills amidst widespread protests.


The legislation, which was railroaded through Republican-dominated committees and pushed to the floor with almost no debate, includes a measure intended to curb the incoming Democratic governor of his ability to appoint members of his own party to the state's county election boards which oversee critical functions like the setting of voting hours at polling sites.

As Richard Fausset and Trip Garbriel reported in the New York Times on Thursday, remarkably this critical bill also mandates that a Republican will oversee the state board of election during election years while a Democrat will oversee the board during non-election years.  

Who even thinks something like that up?

The legislation, which was signed by Governor McCrory on Friday, also mandates that the incoming governor must have his own cabinet appointees approved by the Republican-majority State Senate.

Politically-speaking, the whole affair reeks of petty partisan Republican vindictiveness over their recent loss of the governor's seat to a Democrat.

Protesters pack the NC statehouse on Friday [Photo - AP]

An election that took over a month to finally decide after efforts by various Republicans to challenge the results of the election which Cooper won by 10,000 votes - not one shred of evidence of voter fraud was found.

Hundreds of outraged protesters packed the halls and chambers of the NC state legislature in Raleigh on Friday and over a dozen of them were arrested and forcibly removed in handcuffs.

Aside from the overt power grab by a hyper-conservative legislature that has conspired with Governor McCrory to do everything within their power to limit the ability of North Carolina citizens to exercise their right to vote, people around the nation are also angered over the blatantly deceitful manner in which Republican lawmakers introduced and passed the legislation.

As Emma Margolin reported for NBC News on Friday, state lawmakers had scheduled a special session for Wednesday December 14th in order to approve funding for victims of Hurricane Matthew.

But after passing measures to green-light $201 million in hurricane relief, Republicans quickly began introducing the legislation to strip the incoming governor of power.

Those kinds of flagrantly unethical tactics are nothing new for Governor McCrory and his Republican Tea Party cronies in the state legislature - that's how they passed the notorious House Bill 2 known as the "Bathroom Bill" last March widely-recognized as one of the most blatantly anti-LGTBQ laws in the nation, one that has cost the state hundreds of millions in business revenue after numerous high profile concerts, events and sports tournaments pulled out in protest of the discriminatory legislation.

NC resident Grace Hardison, who is 100-years old,
had her voter registration challenged [Photo - WNCT]

In states across the country, from Wisconsin and Ohio, to North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida, the Republican party's willingness to subvert the principles of the democratic process in order to create a stranglehold on power has been relentless and remarkable in it's brazenness and scope.

One of the two major American political parties openly and actively using their power to draft laws to suppress the right to vote of citizens who happen to disagree with their policies harkens back to the Jim Crow south with poll taxes and literary tests.

The introduction of legislation in Republican-majority statehouses, bills crafted by influential hyper-partisan conservative think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) designed to intentionally make it more difficult for people who tend to vote Democratic to cast their ballots on election day, is a prime (and truly disturbing) example of a political party that has decoupled itself from morals and principles.

What took place in North Carolina last week is, in effect, the political weaponization of the American legislative process.

When lawmakers use their time, resources and influence not to enact legislation to revise the tax code in the interest of fairness, fund the construction of highways, repair damaged bridges, or protect drinking water from harmful pollutants, but to perpetuate control over the political process itself.

It's unprecedented, ethically flawed, toxic to a representative democracy that's supposed to be a model to the free world and totally contrary to the principles enshrined in the Constitution.

The Supreme Court - 277 days since Republicans
have acted on Merrick Garland's nomination 

It's a transparent effort to rig the American political system, but the Republican politicians, influential conservative media figureheads and wealthy hyper-partisan ideologues didn't do it alone.

They had help from one of the three branches of the federal government.

One that should by design, stay out of the political process.

Remember the partisan political environment in this country two years into President Obama's first term?

Back in January of 2010, as a wave of Tea Party anger swept across the American political landscape, fueled by simmering Republican resentment over the election of a Democratic African-American president with the audacity to believe Americans have a right to decent and affordable healthcare, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court gave the Republican Party a gift.

The high court issued a stunning 5-4 decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. 

As the SCOTUS Blog notes, in Citizens United the five justices who made up the conservative majority radically expanded the scope of the First Amendment by ruling that:

"Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections." 

Just ten months before the critical 2010 mid-term elections, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate were up for election, the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United ruled that corporations and unions could pour unlimited amounts of money into Political Action Committees (PAC's) to either support, or trash a political candidate.


And pour money the Republican Party did.

According to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, over the course of 2009 - 2010 the Republican Party spent a staggering $570,019,831 to take back the House of Representatives.

While Republican Senate candidates spent a whopping $439,855,244 during that same period to shrink the Democratic Senate majority.

The opening of those spigots of unrestricted cash flow into the political system by the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling, along with their 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder which gutted a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, seemed to give a kind of legal sanction to the Republican Party's efforts to subvert democracy.

It certainly empowered the North Carolina legislature to engage in the various kinds of reprehensible legislative actions we've seen since 2010.

While incoming Democratic Governor Roy Cooper has vowed to challenge Republican efforts to strip him of power, he's clearly got his work cut out for him.

The road to the partisan political chaos that's taking place in North Carolina didn't just begin with a sneaky legislative maneuver in the state house last week, it started years ago.

On a road that runs right through the Supreme Court.

The Republican Fear Factor

As an African-American man who stands 6 foot 7 inches tall, it's pretty fair to say that I tend to stand out whenever I'm out in public; for reasons related to both my physicality and my ethnicity.

In order to maintain my sense of sanity and perspective, I've learned to simply accept that lingering stares and sidelong glances from complete strangers are a part of my everyday reality; one that I can't take personally or react emotionally to - it just" is" and I have to tune out what people who don't know me may, or may not project onto me.

But lately when I walk around in the grocery store or pharmacy, I've found myself looking back at the man or woman whose glance lingers on me longer than usual, and in my mind I catch myself thinking, "Did they vote for Trump?"

The moment that thought pops into my head I have to stop and remind myself that is ME projecting my own insecurities and fears onto someone else - and there's way too much of that happening in this country these days.

So much has changed in the 38 days since the November 8th elections shook the foundations of America's Democracy, but the abiding sense of fear that was such a strong undercurrent of the 2016 presidential campaign season seems just as acute; if not more so.

Just this afternoon a Washington Post article by Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima reports that both FBI Director James Comey and National Intelligence Director James Clapper are now in agreement with the CIA's assessment that Russia intentionally interfered with the 2016 presidential elections.

Something that only adds to widespread fears that the election of Donald Trump was a result of a combination of voter fraud, fake news stories and interference by the Russian government.

     

Psychiatrists and other mental healthcare professionals have been treating patients for anxieties related to the president-elect's statements and actions since as far back as May of this year.

EPA-nominee Scott Pruitt

His continuing stream of unhinged Twitter messages and appointment of key advisors who either harbor extremist right-wing views or have little actual policy experience has done little to assuage the concerns of the millions of people who voted for Clinton.

The selection of cabinet heads who actually oppose the mission of the federal agencies they're slated to lead have only exacerbated the fears of what a Trump presidency will mean to laws and regulations in this country. 

Case in point, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a environmental regulations-hating climate change denier who has spent much of his tenure filing lawsuits against the federal government on behalf of the oil and natural gas industry that he shills for - the idea that a guy like that is going to head up the Environmental Protection Agency is, well, scary.  

Republicans have been peddling in fear since the 1960's when they began targeted efforts to lure white voters by exploiting anxieties about race and the changing face of America during the civil rights era and later when rioting broke out in large cities in the wake of the assassination of Dr. King.

But the conservative exploitation of their overwhelmingly white voter base's fears in the 21st century has taken on a new dimension since the election of President Obama in 2008, as University of Colorado psychology professor Tom Pyszczynski observed in Rolling Stone back in October:

"I suggest that one of things frightening them is the de-whitening of America. I don't think people are afraid of illegal immigrants committing crimes against them - but they're bothered by certain kinds of immigrants diluting the whiteness of the country and the American identity that people get their sense of security from. The idea of 'taking our country back' after having a black president is a prime example of that."  

   

That quote was lifted from 'The Age Of Fear', an insightful examination of how fear has impacted the 2016 elections in an October, 2016 Rolling Stone article by Neil Strauss. (Which is a must-read.)

Strauss spoke with sociologists, neurologists and psychologists to analyze how wealthy Republican rainmakers like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and others who use their fortunes to funnel vast untraceable sums to political action committees that in turn influence partisan Websites, media outlets and even "mainstream" platforms like Fox News to expose people to a constant stream of content designed to keep them filled with anxiety.

And as Strauss observed, anxiety-ridden people are not only extremely susceptible - they vote.

Trump's xenophobic and racially divisive rhetoric was the same kind of "southern strategy" that got Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan elected, it's also rooted in the same kind of anxiety that George H.W. Bush's campaign exploited with the infamous Willie Horton political ad to help him crush Democratic candidate Mike Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race.

I work with an Irish-American guy in his 50's who voted for Trump; we had a lot of conversations about politics during the run up to the November 8th elections.

He's an Army veteran, staunch Catholic and gun and NASCAR enthusiast who repeatedly complained about how dangerous Hillary Clinton's missing emails were to the country - and that "she couldn't be trusted." 

Dangerous classified emails?

There were some days when he'd be so worked up about it I got the feeling that he'd spent the previous evening in front of the television watching hours of Fox News.

Now this is a genuinely decent man who treats others fairly and with respect regardless of their race or ethnicity - he goes out of his way to make sure that Mexican immigrants who work for the company are treated fairly.

But in the same way that Neil Strauss observed that people who are anxiety-ridden tend to see their vote as an easy way to assuage their fears, my friend would often point out deficiencies in local or federal government that he'd blame on Obama - then relate them to Hillary's emails.

For example there have been some issues with post office deliveries in the past few months, he'd blame that on Obama and say things like, "See, Trump would fix that!" - never mind Trump's trail of bankruptcy filings of his own businesses, the scores of lawsuits filed against him and his companies by vendors or suppliers who never got paid for their work, or his scam "Trump University. "  

For many American conservatives President Obama and Hillary Clinton represent this amorphous all-encompassing scapegoat for a laundry list of conservative anxieties about race, politics, government, foreign affairs and the changing landscape of America.

Think these folks voted to have Social Security cut?

Never mind the fact that the economy is now stable, the nation is in one of the longest sustained periods of job growth, the unemployment rate is under 5% and the stock market is at an all-time high.

Many Republican voters have been manipulated into seeing only the skin color of the president; and magnified the perceived flaws of Clinton while ignoring those of Trump.


In focusing on race and an imagined fear of immigrants, far too many Republicans have been blinded from seeing the deeper Republican political strategy that includes gutting Social Security and Medicare - programs many of those same folks at Trump rallies will depend on if they don't already.

And even though I may disagree with them politically, those folks aren't stupid.

What do they think as Trump offers up a tax plan with the lion's share of tax cuts going to top earners that depends on billions in government spending cuts that he hasn't spelled out yet?

As Trump assembles a presidential cabinet that includes billionaires, Wall Street insiders, CEO's who oppose minimum wage laws, and the current head of the largest oil company in the world, at what point are working class Trump supporters going to start to fear that they've actually been duped?

Eventually the emotional high of those rallies are going to wear off, Hillary's emails will be forgotten and the reality of who the president-elect really is is finally going to set in - and for many current Trump supporters, that's going to be really scary.

Don Veto: Christie "Administratively Segregates" Himself From Reality

Christie vetoes himself into oblivion

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was branded politically-damaged goods long before his former deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and his former Port Authority appointee Bill Baroni were found guilty on multiple counts related to their roles in conspiring to close lanes of the George Washington Bridge back on November 4th.

But it was remarkable how quickly Donald Trump removed Christie from any involvement with the campaign and began treating him like a leper when it came to naming top cabinet positions for the erratic president-elect.

For weeks after the November 8th election Christie withdrew into a political shell like a turtle protecting itself from predators as he sought to avoid unpleasant questions from the media about the guilty verdicts of his two former top-aides in the Bridgegate scandal - and an official misconduct lawsuit filed in court by a retired Teaneck firefighter named Bill Brennan.

But in recent days Christie's name has begun to slip back into national media headlines over reports that he reportedly turned down lesser cabinet positions offered byTrump.

After his rocky stint in the 2015 - 2016 Republican Clown Car as a presidential contender ended with a lackluster primary finish in New Hampshire, and his desire to be named Trump's VP or Attorney General pick were dashed, there's no way a man with an ego the size of Christie's would settle for a position as head of Veteran's Affairs or ambassador to Italy.

Especially not after Trump supposedly nixed his request to be named the next Republican National Committee chair, so sadly (for Christie), his best option is the one he sought to use as a launching pad for his national political ambitions - to remain the governor of NJ.

Christie 0 - Pence 2 

It's a rather mutually disappointing prospect both for him and for the citizens of the Garden State who've watched him spend the bulk of his last three years as governor traipsing around the nation raising money for the Republican party.

First in his former role as the head of the Republican Governor's Association, then as a presidential candidate, then most recently as the head of the Trump transition team - until he was unceremoniously replaced by VP-elect Mike Pence.

Now that Christie is back home and facing what are considered to be the lowest approval ratings for a sitting governor ever tracked (a dismal 19% of New Jersey-folk approved of him in November), it seems as if Christie is determined to spend the remaining year he has in office doing what's he's done best as governor - saying no to stuff that a majority of the people want.

With his latest in a long string of vetoes of legislation overwhelmingly approved with bi-partisan support in the NJ legislature, a decision to veto a legislative measure that would have placed restrictions on the use of solitary confinement in NJ prisons, Christie has edged further into some kind of detached ideological void.

Earlier today Christie earned the ire of the Editorial Board of the New York Times in a scathing op-ed piece that ripped into him for "resorting to euphemisms" to try and justify his decision to defend the use of a practice that justice reform activists, human rights advocates and legal experts alike are trying to curb in local, state and federal prisons and jails across the U.S.

Solitary confinement: 'Cruel & unusual punishment.'

As the Times op-ed noted, Christie had the gall to try and insist that "a form of isolated punishment called "administrative segregation" has replaced solitary confinement and it's horrors."

Administrative segregation?

Does Christie really think calling solitary confinement by another name will reduce the devastating and debilitating psychological impact it has on people?


His veto is a blow to inmate's rights, bi-partisan efforts to begin to dismantle mass incarceration and justice reform in American prisons - so why did Christie do it?

Maybe for the same reason he vetoed a bill back in August that was introduced by NJ State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg that would have required NJ gun dealers to carry at least one "smart gun" - handguns that use sensors in the handgrip that ensure that only the gun's owner can fire them.

The bill was an effort to try and at least offer some kind of solution to keep handguns out of the wrong hands of people who purchase them illegally, but as PhillyMag.com reported in his veto message Christie took aim at what he called "the relentless campaign by the Democratic legislature to make New Jersey as inhospitable as possible to lawful gun ownership and sales."

Sen. Corey Booker leads an anti-gun violence rally
in Newark in June after the Orlando massacre 

It's not just that Christie whores himself out to the NRA, his defiantly pro-gun stance is totally out of step with the overwhelming majority of NJ citizens who favor sensible gun laws.

This is a governor whose spent so much time in the past three years outside of the state that he was elected to lead, that it's like he's still stuck in some kind of robotic permanent campaign mode.

Seeking to satisfy the extremist wing of the national Republican party, rather than the will of the people of New Jersey.



He's almost like a greyhound racing around the track thinking he can catch the rabbit if he just goes a little faster.

As an article posted on NJ.com earlier today reported, Democratic legislators are hoping that Christie's anemic poll numbers could help persuade Republican lawmakers to override his latest veto of legislation that would have helped ensure equal pay for women in the workplace.

Yes, in a state where women make up over 50% of the population and still make 80 cents to the dollar to men, Christie vetoed the latest legislative effort to close the gender pay gap.

Why? He called the bill "nonsensical" and "business unfriendly".

The only thing nonsensical is Christie's continual vetoing of legislation that people and politicians from both parties support - as if he's a little kid on the political playground still trying to prove he's conservative enough to play with the big boys.

As our governor enters his final year in office, he's increasingly politically removed from the mainstream; and administratively segregated from reality.

Plantations to Greenwood: Intolerance in The American Mainstream

Plantations tobacco shop in Oklahoma

The KKK marches to celebrate the election of a president-elect who named an overtly racist anti-Semite like Steve Bannon as a key White House policy advisor.

Republican fundraiser Betsy DeVos gets tapped as Secretary of Education, a billionaire with no experience in public school education with a dubious record of lobbying to shift Michigan taxpayer's dollars to poorly performing charter schools.

Lately it's kinda feeling like intolerance is going mainstream in this country.

Check out this photo my friend James sent me the other day,  he lives out in Oklahoma and he recently snapped this photo of a tobacco specialty shop in a mall near Oklahoma City called "Plantations."

Is intolerance going Main Street as well? Or is this a not-so-subtle pushback against what some see as "political correctness" in America?

James and I have been tight since we were classmates and became close friends at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South back in the late 1980's.

Our initial bond over a shared passion for graphic novels and films eventually morphed into a professional creative partnership that endures to this day.

We both share a somewhat offbeat sense of humor marked by cynicism, as well as a similar political outlook, so when he texted me this photo the other day we both had a good laugh.

As two of the handful of ethnic minorities in our suburban New Jersey high school in the late 80's, James and I found a measure of comfort in one another's company based on our shared sense of cultural isolation in the (then) mostly-white community of West Windsor.

Slaves picking cotton on the Oak Valley Plantation
in Vacherie, Louisiana    [Getty Images]

So having (at times) been on the business-end of some not-so-nice acts of hostility, violence or ignorance related to our respective ethnicity growing up - we couldn't help but laugh at the idea of someone deciding to name their specialty tobacco store Plantations.

Now I really don't know much about this store in Oklahoma aside from the name.


It has a rather generic Facebook page which suggests that it has also branched into serving coffee as well (which was also grown on plantations), but undoubtedly the word plantation conjures different things to different people.

Journalist and writer Kelsey Minor offered an interesting perspective on plantations in an essay published on the Huffington Post back in 2015.

Given the context of the institution of slavery in this country, why would someone intentionally name a tobacco shop, or any other place of business, "Plantations?"

To provoke in order to tout an "anti-PC" perspective?

Scarlett O'Hara's slave "Big Sam" happily marching
off to labor for the Confederacy in Gone With the Wind 

Or simply to evoke some kind of sentimental memory of old tobacco plantations in the same way the 1939 film Gone With the Wind sought to romanticize the 19th century southern slave-plantation system in America?

Personally speaking I come from a cultural background where some of my ancestors harvested tobacco (and other crops) as part of the systematic indentured servitude of the horrific institution of slavery.



An institution based on the incalculable misery of enforced human bondage that was the backbone of the American agrarian economy in the 18th and 19th centuries.

My friend James' descendants were part of a vast culture that first introduced tobacco to European colonists back in the 16th century, in fact it was the explorer Columbus who became the first known European to "discover" tobacco when he recorded an entry in his diary after seeing a Native American in a canoe loaded with tobacco leaves on October 15, 1542.

James is an exceptionally talented professional illustrator and sculptor who makes his home with his wife within the boundaries of the 13 different counties that comprise the Chickasaw Nation.

The Chickasaw are one of the Five Civilized Tribes, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto was the first European to make contact with them in 1540 during his exploration of the interior of the southeastern United States, when the tribe lived in areas of Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

They lived in towns and had an organized system of tribal government by the time Europeans began expanding west in larger numbers in the 18th century.

The Chickasaw-owned WinStar World Casino  

Like other tribes such as the Cherokee and Seminole, the Chickasaw were forced to cede their traditional lands to the U.S. and were forcibly relocated Oklahoma in the 1830's; some 500 Chickasaw died along the  Trail of Tears.

Like some other tribes they also owned slaves, and brought them with them to Oklahoma.

Today the Chickasaw are a federally recognized independent nation of some 49,000 people.

James and his wife make their home in Ada, Oklahoma where the Chickasaw government is centered and oversees not just the land and people, but also a vast network of economic interests with a nearly $14 billion footprint that includes 18 different casinos and hotels and a wide array of businesses that includes radio stations, truck stops, gas stations, entertainment venues and of course, smoke shops.

So the Chickasaw know tobacco too, they were growing it for hundreds of years before the 1830's when they lived in the Mississippi valley and Tennessee; where their ancestors had lived for thousands of years.

So in a way that "Plantations" sign on the outside of that tobacco shop near Oklahoma, City is symbolic of some deep, unhealed wounds in this country.

Part of the 35 square blocks of Tulsa, OK destroyed
during the Tulsa Race Riots in 1921

For example James told me that outside of Ada there's a limestone quarry located on the site of what used to be a small town of freed slaves.

He said it was essentially destroyed and wiped off the map by enraged mobs of whites in the early 20th century in the same way that hundreds of African-Americans were killed in the Tulsa, Oklahoma neighborhood known as Greenwood in 1921.

To this day he said it's hard to get people in Ada to even talk about it.


The Tulsa Race Riots, as they are commonly known, were never taught as part of the American history I learned in school.

One of the worst incidents of racial unrest in U.S. history, they took place over the course of May 31 - June 1, 1921 when mobs of enraged whites, including Tulsa police, tore through the thriving black community and murdered hundreds of African-American men, women and children and burned 35 square blocks of some 600 black-owned businesses including 21 churches, 21 grocery stores, 2 movie theaters, a bank, a library, a post office, hotels, barbershops, and scores of private homes to the ground.

This massacre was documented in the 2008 book "Black Wall Street" by Jay Jay Wilson and Ron Wallace.

The area known as the Oklahoma Territory wasn't made a state until 1907, the approximately 15,000 African-American residents who lived in the Tulsa section known as Greenwood in 1921 were part of the thousands of blacks who migrated west to Oklahoma to escape the entrenched racism of the south during the late 1800's.

Dr. A.C. Jackson

Some had fled slavery as runaways, while some had come as slaves of the Chickasaw or other tribes during the Trail of Tears in the 1830's; some were feed blacks simply looking to make a new start.

Some came from other parts of the country, including Chicago, New York, Boston and Philadelphia seeking business opportunities in the thriving mid-west community that was once known as the 'Black Wall Street'.

Some residents were nationally recognized figures, like physician Dr. A.C. Jackson (pictured left).

According to the 2007 book 'Black Wall Street: From Riot To Renaissance In Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District', the Mayo brothers regarded hi as the most prominent black surgeon in the country at the time.

He was shot and killed trying to leave his home during the riots.



The Greenwood section of Tulsa was a prosperous independent black community attacked and destroyed by a cooperative effort by the KKK, local law enforcement, municipal and business leaders and private citizens - so there's a legacy of racial hatred and bigotry that still looms over Oklahoma.

And not just against African-Americans either.

For example, one of the events the Chickasaw produces, the annual Artesian Arts Festival, takes place in Sulphur, Oklahoma about 30 minutes from Ada.

James told me that he was walking around the festival with family and friends not far from the Chickasaw-owned Artesian Hotel when he saw a one of those chalkboard signs outside of a small local bar with the words "Two-For-One Pow-Wow Shots!" written in chalk.

He said the group all stopped and laughed about the absurdity of such a term being misused in such a demeaning and subtly racist way that made it a derogatory reference to Native American culture written on a sign during an event sponsored by the Chickasaw Nation that attracts scores of visitors.
   
One of the group went inside to speak with the bar's white manager about it, and he actually came outside and erased it from the board, which was cool but as James told me - didn't he realize that using the term "Pow-Wow" to sell shots during a Native American arts festival might be considered offensive?

Maybe the person who decided to name a tobacco shop Plantations didn't consider that either.